Towards an experience based negotiation agent

Abstract

Current E-Commerce trading agents with electronic negotiation facilities usually use predefined and non-adaptive negotiation mechanisms [5]. This paper presents a negotiation agent that applies Case-Based Reasoning techniques to capture and re-use previously successful negotiation experiences. This Experience Based Negotiation (EBN) agent provides adaptive negotiation strategies that can be generated dynamically and are context-sensitive. We demonstrate this negotiation agent in the context of used-car trading. This paper describes the negotiation process and the conceptual framework of the EBN agent. It discusses our web based used-car trading prototype, the representation of the used-car trading negotiation experience, and the stages of experience based negotiation. The paper also discusses some experimental observation and illustrates an example of adaptive behaviour exhibited by the EBN agent. We believe that this Experience Based Negotiation framework can enhance the negotiation skills and performance of current trading agents.